Since James and I hadn’t eaten in a long time, we went to a little café for some breakfast. I had a nice tea and an apple pastry. I thought the meal would be relaxing and for the most part it was, but it takes a little while to acclimate to new surroundings. The lessons weren’t going to stop either. There was a lot to learn about living in Köln and we had no time to dally. We quickly learned how German services operate. Everything was nice and laid back. I also learned my first German phrase aside from the CDs I had been listening to. I got to ask for the check, because if you don’t ask, it’s not coming.
After breakfast we toured around the shopping center, saw the Dom and the statue that looks just like Howard, one of our co-workers, in a nearby square. By 11:00, most places were open and we stopped at a little pub for our first Kölsch. The pub only had seven stools and a small bar, but there were already a few locals in there getting the local scoop. While we had our first few, the locals played some Yahtzee. It was quite a fine setting. After our Kölsch, we made our way to the apartment.
The apartment is in a nice location near Rudolfplatz. You walk into a hallway with the kitchen being the first door on your left. After the kitchen in the bathroom and laundry room with a very large tub. It might be nice when it gets a little cooler to have a good soak in it. Next to the bathroom is the guest room/office and at the end of the hall is the bedroom and then the living room. It’s quite a lot of space for one person, but it gets small quickly with three people and three more of Erin's friends were arriving that night!
Once we had gotten more settled, we went out to a little German Restaurant for some dinner. It was quite charming with a winding staircase and antique furniture. We each got a different glass of white wine to try and got a dish with seasonal mushrooms that were lovely. After we had eaten and were thinking about dessert, a little mouse scurried under the stairs after stealing some crumbs from underneath a neighboring table. Apparently there are a lot of mice in Köln. I just hope I don’t find one in the apartment!
The rest of the week was spent going to work to learn the ropes and leaving early enough each day to get my rental car, learn how to grocery shop and continue trying new restaurants in different areas to try and make Köln feel like home.
Thursday night was made Kölsch Challenge Night by Erin. It was the night before we were going to hop on a train for Munich just to drink more beer, but we all thought of it as the opening act. The Kölsch Challenge consisted of Erin and her three friends, James and I, Casey our boss and Laura. The eight of us made our way to Frúh brewery. A large pub near the Dom. The whole stone building is full of small rooms with different sets of tables. It was very busy by the time we arrived so we made our way to the basement. There we found that the old well had been turned into a table so we sat there. The goal of the evening was to have enough Kölsch that the coaster the waiter was using to tally the drinks would be a full spiral.
We started at 7:30 with dinner. As the Kölsch kept coming, so did the good times. We ended up playing some drinking games that were giving us some stares. One table of guys found it particularly interesting when the girls would spank each other. It struck up an interesting conversation to be sure. By 11:30, we had succeeded in consuming 119 Kölsch. As we wandered the streets, some of the girls took turns riding Casey’s bicycle. Heather almost ran into a police car I the process and fell off. We walked the bike to Freizenplatz where we wandered into a pub for something other than Kölsch. I had a Jack and Coke, but the place was dead so as soon as I was finished we hit the streets again. It was 3:00 by the time we made it back to the apartment, singing and talking to passers by the whole way. Getting up to catch a train will be a miracle.
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